


Poker and Mistletoe: Or, Bernie and Serena's Officially Unofficial Coming Out Party

by vast_difference



Category: Holby City
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Coming Out, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-21
Updated: 2016-12-21
Packaged: 2018-09-10 20:46:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8938465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vast_difference/pseuds/vast_difference
Summary: A continuation of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," to make up for the appalling lack of scenes for our two favorite star-crossed surgeons. Albie's. Poker. Mistletoe. Drunk Serena and flustered Bernie. You get the picture!





	

**Author's Note:**

> I did this in about 3 hours with several interruptions. It's not beta'd, and I'm not sorry because we need as many of these stories as we can get right now, and pronto. Huge thanks to moandkatelive on tumblr for helping me with some episode context and poker ideas! Also thanks to ames-78 for her collective kick in the pants to the fandom to go write some things ;-)

As it turned out, a jolly at Albie’s did happen for some of the AAU staff in spite of the lateness of the hour when those working on Christmas clocked off. True to Christmas form, the ward had stayed busily full of both food and alcohol poisoning for much of the day, meaning that most of the staff that had drawn the short straws to work on the holiday worked longer than their scheduled shifts. In reality, Bernie hadn’t even drawn the short straw; Serena had, but Bernie insisted that if Serena was going to be working on Christmas and off on Boxing Day, that she might as well trade with someone and do the same. Bernie had only been back from Kiev for about two weeks when it had to be decided. Later that same day, they had been sitting at their desks charting when Serena had broken their usual companionable working silence.

“Bernie, you really don’t have to work on Christmas just because I am. You could spend some of it with Jason since I won’t be able to, or maybe even Cameron…” Serena didn’t know much of Bernie’s family beyond that, and this was hardly the time to press about that.

“He’ll be with Marcus and Charlotte,” she interrupted, though quietly without looking up. “And it’s not that I don’t want to spend time with Jason.” Now she did look at Serena, right in the eye, except she couldn’t quite find the words. “But, it’s just…”

Luckily, Serena was improving at reading Bernie by the hour, and so she got up and walked around their joined desks. Bernie was expecting her to lay a reassuring hand on her shoulder or maybe sit on the corner of her desk, but Serena surprised her by popping right down in her lap and winding her arms around a stunned Bernie’s neck.

“… not the same as being with me, hm?” Serena murmured, leaning her own forehead against her girlfriend’s. Serena’s tone was the tiniest bit teasing, but it was fond. “Especially when it’s our first holiday together.”

Bernie smiled, and had to choke back the uncharacteristic tears that kept threatening to spill during these tender moments that were ever increasing, but still such a new and precious thing in her sphere. She kissed Serena slowly, parting her lips over and over again, with Serena humming her contentment in response, and both of them without any reservations about the fact that the blinds were most definitely not pulled on the office windows.

Even though they didn’t really discuss it, they both knew that the whole ward knew. And the whole ward also knew that they both knew that they knew. But aside from a few well-placed knowing looks from Raf and Fletch, some eyerolls returned from Serena and some uncomfortable coughs from Bernie, everyone continued to leave it at that for nearly a month.

Until that fateful Christmas night at Albie’s.

The party was quite well underway by the time that Bernie, Serena, and Morven arrived. And fresh off their poker game with Artie on the ward, they arrived and found out from a slightly earlier-arrived Fletch at the bar that none other than Jac Naylor herself had started a game of Texas Hold ‘Em at a partially obscured corner table. It was a little crowded, but after leaving Serena, who insisted she didn’t mind, to fetch their drinks, Morven and Bernie approached the table to find Jac, Dom, Sacha- and quite surprisingly, Cameron- already playing.

Cameron noticed his mum before the rest of the group, and he gave her an unguarded smile and a little salute in greeting. He didn’t get up, but based on his demeanor Bernie didn’t feel awkward about going over to him.

Well. Not _that_ awkward, anyway: less than she would have only a few weeks beforehand.

She was quite surprised, then, when he _did_ get up and gave her hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Happy Christmas, Mum,” Cameron said into her shoulder, his voice betraying more emotion than he would have liked. It had been a rocky year for the two of them, no doubt; but he could count on one hand the number of Christmases that his mother had been in the same country as him since he was ten. They still had a lot of difficult talks ahead of them, but today was not the day for that. Today was Christmas. And she was _here_. And Bernie silently agreed, because she hugged her son tighter to her than she had felt comfortable for a very long time.

“Happy Christmas, Cam.” Bernie tried to school the break out of her voice, but she didn’t quite succeed. She kept her arm around him when the hug ended, even as she greeted the rest of the table and exchanged a few pleasantries, and he allowed it. She turned back to him. “I thought you were going to be at your father’s all day.”

“I was for most of it, but then Morven texted me that you were all coming over here, and I figured I could pop out for a bit.” He smiled at Morven, and she smiled back, and Bernie tried not to smile too obviously at either of their smiles. _They have each others' numbers_ , she thought giddily to herself. Bernie knew that she had shamelessly been playing matchmaker between the two of them, but it was something she would neither outright admit to nor apologize for. It was unlike her to interfere in Cam’s love life; but after what had happened with Keeley, she figured he could use a gentle push in the right direction.

Cam had just walked over to Morven to say hello when Jac rolled her eyes at the continued delay in the game and barked, “That’s enough of that then… are we playing or not?”

Bernie shrugged. “I’m game. You?” she directed at Morven.

“I suppose so… even though you’ve already wiped the floor with me more than once today,” she laughed. Serena picked that moment to rejoin them, balancing two glasses of Shiraz between the fingers of one hand and a rum and coke in the other.

She handed Morven the rum and coke and Bernie one of the glasses of Shiraz. “What’s so funny?” she asked.

“Apparently, me beating the pants off both of you at poker,” Bernie teased, taking a sip of her Shiraz and giving Serena one of her secret smiles.

“I still think you were cheating,” Serena glared.

“That’s called a bluff darling, and it’s allowed,” retorted Bernie, and then she did a mental double take at her own words. She had just called Serena “darling” in front of a rather large group of their colleagues. Serena’s eyes widened slightly, but she didn’t react beyond that. No one else reacted at all.

“When were you playing poker?” Cam asked.

“Just trying to cheer up a lonely patient,” Morven offered.

“Since you all seem so determined to have a chat in the middle of this game,” Jac interrupted, “I’m going to go retrieve my credit card from the bartender, as I’m quite sure that half an hour has passed just since this conversation started. Did he tell you those were covered?” Jac asked Serena, nodding to their drinks.

“He did. Thank you, Ms. Naylor. And Happy Christmas to you, as well,” Serena answered warmly.

Jac actually smiled at that, albeit briefly. “Same, Ms. Campbell.” And she was off on her mission. Morven joined Cameron at the table, but the two not-so-secret girlfriends hung back for a minute.

“So, Ms. Campbell,” Bernie intoned, “are you ready for a rematch or not?”

Serena took a deep drink of her Shiraz, but her eyes never left Bernie. “You have a much larger group to compete against this time.”

“Never stopped me before,” bragged Bernie.

“This is Texas Hold ‘Em, and we were playing seven card stud before. You sure this still ‘your game’?”

“Believe it or not, Texas Hold ‘Em was much more popular than stud in my circles.”

“Really.” Serena took another drink and considered Bernie.

“Mm.” Bernie took another drink and considered Serena.

Had they been at home, this kind of back and forth would have ended up with an entirely different sort of game and entirely fewer clothes. But they weren’t at home. They were at Ablie’s, with colleagues, in front of whom they were still trying to maintain the polite farce of platonic friendship.

Luckily, Jac came back from the bar with another drink for herself before Bernie and Serena could up the ante between them.

“Well? Are you two in or out?” Jac asked them.

Bernie and Serena regarded each other intently, and then turned to Jac in tandem.

“In.”

**Author's Note:**

> Still not British. Still trying not to sound ridiculous. 
> 
> It's almost 2am here, and I reserve the right to come back and edit if I think something doesn't make sense in the morning.
> 
> I did the best I could with Jac, since the only scene I've seen her in is the one with Matteo McFuckFace and the horse.
> 
> This should be a 2-shot. I'll try to have it finished before Christmas.


End file.
